Exhibition Opening

Join us on Saturday 25 May from 4-6pm for the opening of two new exhibitions – Justene Williams: Making do rhymes with poo and Eternally Temporary: From the collection of and supported by the Kelliher Art Trust.

Making do rhymes with poo is a major new multimedia installation with video and live performance by eminent Australian artist Justene Williams. During the opening and for the following week, Williams will conduct a durational live performance in the gallery, using her own body to transform the space through menial ‘work’. This exciting new work addresses conscious and unconscious forms of labour undertaken by the body. The title reads both as a way of ‘making do’ with what is at one’s disposal (a nod to the artist’s working-class upbringing and time spent with her father in his wrecking yard) as well as to describe the automatic labour of ‘making’ with the body. 

Eternally Temporary brings together ten landscape paintings selected from the Kelliher Art Trust Collection. Together, the paintings evoke the scale and endurance of Aotearoa’s natural environment. The Kelliher Art Trust Collection grew from the Kelliher Art Competition established in 1956, which celebrated realistic depictions of Aotearoa’s landscape. Eternally Temporary looks back at the origin of this collection and how it has grown and changed, considering what landscape painting means now. Featuring paintings by Derek Ball, Austen Deans, Michael Dell, Trenton Garratt, Aroha Gossage, Rodney Hamel, Imogen Taylor, Rex Turnbull, Robert Watson, and Toss Woollaston.

Enjoy a glass of Everyday Wine, an Epic Beer or an Almighty Sparkling Water, and some delicious Florets focaccia served with artisanal preserves from the Modern Preserver.

25 May, 4-6pm